Thinking about new series

[BraidsMamma]

yeah... great way of working... I'll see what I can do...
Still.. my greatest problem is to find stuff for my players to do in the episodes.. I would be much better at writing stories for a Tv-show..

[LUGTrekGM]

How do they not have "Stuff to do?"

Exploration

Negotiation

Solving scientific puzzles

Rescuing the helpless

Making alliances

Space battles

Catching Criminals

There are thousands of things to do with Star Trek (or any other RPG for that matter).

[BraidsMamma]

Well.....
For exemple...

I got a plot idea with a Romulan ship attacking the Daedalus (not knowing that the war is over)...

The question is what e.g. the Science Officer is supposed to do in such a plot.... more that just wathing the captain trying to hail the romulans..

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Well.....
For exemple...

I got a plot idea with a Romulan ship attacking the Daedalus (not knowing that the war is over)...

The question is what e.g. the Science Officer is supposed to do in such a plot.... more that just wathing the captain trying to hail the romulans..

Use the terrain of the nebula they charted to their advantage?

[LUGTrekGM]

Scan space for ion trails left by the romulan ships.

Scan the romulan ship, once encountered for new technology, weapons, crew complement or other intel data useful in future encounters for starfleet intelligence.

Advise the captain of those findings.

Advise the engineer as to speed or other settings, to reduce those same ion trails emitted by the friendly ship.

Scan space for planets that the romulans might ambush from.

Recall known facts about romulan ships, and capabilities form past contacts with them.

Look at the galactic cartography database, and deduce where a likely system might be for a romulan base.

Run computer simulations as to the most likely type of tactics the romulans will use, based on past encounters.

Program computer simulations of possible responses to the above, based on the ship's weapons and meaneuvering profile.

Estimate chances of survival, for all of the above.

Deduce what are the romulans likely looknig for, in this sector, that makes a war worth it.

Estimate the value of (whatever) to the federation.

Best Guess as to when and where the Romulans will attack, and what will minimize that attack.

If you set it up that they start talking from the word go, then it's the captain's show. If you as the GM are the captain, then I guess your thing is what to do to keep form talking to yourself. This is why I never play the captain as an NPC, I hire a player.

But, usually, it is gonna be the captain's show anyway. But the captain can give it to someone else....

If the captain is an NPC, no problem:

If the Science officer is First Officer:
CAPT: "XO, take charge."

If the Science Officer is Sciences Dept. Head, but not the XO:

CAPT: "Science Officer, you're bridge qualified, correct? Let's use this encounter with the romulans as a live exercise of your bridge qualification skills, and starship command skills. Assume myself and the XO are incapacitated. You have the Conn. Take charge."

Simple. It builds skills in subordinates, who might face that exact situation at any time, without the safety net of having the Captain or First Officer there and available for advice or guidance.

The whole key is not to make it all a talking scene between the captain and the romulan commander.

Alternate talking with action, so that if they are talking the romulan commander switches off, and moves off, into a defensive posture, or just moves off to do whatever they were doing before the federation arrived to interrupt them.

Or the romulans could attack, or scan the fed ship. Maybe that was the whole prurpose of the encounter, for the romulans to rattle the cage of the federation, draw out a cruiser, and fade into the darkness.

In such a scenario, then it is a case of tracking the romulans, or reporting back to starfleet about their encounter, along with the intel data the fed ship got from their own scans of the romulans.

Just because it is a Daedalus class doesn't change the situation. It only changes the weapons and defenses, and sensor ranges. This is why Star Trek is so great, you can run exciting stories in any era.

[BraidsMamma]

how is that going to help the Science officer?

He may get to roll one or two dice but he won't get to play...

And what will the ship's doctor do in this story?

[LUGTrekGM]

If it really is the case of the romulans are attacking because they don't know that the war is over, really then the theme is one of what price is the enemy willing to pay for honor. Will they die in the line of duty, against a percieved attacker, or relent, in the face of (to them) Sketchy evidence.

Telling them that the war is over, and there is a treaty, they might listen to a broadcast that the Science officer calls up from memory banks, which repeats the old treaty negotiations, conducted by hyperradio.

They might believe it, they might believe it is a trick.

If they keep attacking, the Captain's job is to prevent the war from restarting anew, and to defend the ship. The science officer's job is to know all he or she can about the engineering and other hard data of the Romulan ship, perhaps to find a weakness, and advise the captain.

Known weaknesses in later eras are: cloak takes a lot of power, and romulan plasma has relatively short endurance.

Maybe the Federation ship can keep the romulans at range, and do long range sniping with overpowered Lasers, disabling the enemy ship, with a lucky shot.

The specifics are up to you, and the setting, of course.

Ideally, I suggest, look at it like this:

What do the romulans want? Likely, Defense of their Territory (as they see it).

What does the Federation want? Continuing peace.

If the romulans go on the offensive, the Federation, after sending the historical treaty broadcast can go defensive (which might be a crapshoot, or if they ar elucky, resolve it right there if they score a few lucky hits on the romulans), or withdraw, to get reinforcements, and advise Starfleet that "A rogue Romulan Ship is on the loose out here, and the commander is unaware that the war has ended, despite our attempts to convince him otherwise."

So a small fleet of fed ships arrive, to hunt down this rogue Romulan...which might provoke a real romulan fleet to arrive...and thus galactic War might be in the offing, except that now there is a solution, in that the romulan can now be ordered by his admiral to stand down, to keep the peace. Mission accomplished, for both sides, negotiated by the Federation ship you started with, backed up by the science officer's recommendations.

The key is to always give PCs critical decisions to make, for the whole crew...

For a science officer, a lot of it will involve:

what memory banks of the computer to call upon for data retrieval.

what specific sensor scans to use...scan all bands and pick up more with less accuracy, or some specific bands, with a high degree of accuracy, but perhaps miss something?

How much information to give the Captain and crew...too much, when a brief synopsis is needed is wrong, just the same as a terse reply, when critically important information needs to be conveyed.

analysis of anything found at the scene.. nebular gases, debris, etc.
If you are going right for the battle in ACT I, you reach the climax too soon, unless the climax is a fleet battle, which you don't seem to be moving towards.

So start small... let the science officer early on find clues, hints...a piece of wreckage from a destroyed outpost, bodies of federation casualties, ion trails.

Suspecting romulans, or orion pirates, or, who knows what?

Then an orion blockade runner shows up...right as the captain is about to attack, the science officer discovers, "NO CAPTAIN, THIS IS NOT THE SHIP...the signatures are different." Thus preventing a tragic incident, as an Orion trade ship is nearly destroyed. Such things are the Science Officer's JOB, and makes him/her valuable as an advisor.

Then, stretches of empty space...

Nothing for light years. All scanning die rolls find nothing, over and over... until BLIP.

"Science officer, what is it?"

"Unknown, Captain. I am scanning now...possibly an asteroid...Ah, Metallic compounds, energy sig.. A ship, captain."

All this time, it is the Science officer's show. But the Science officer is the captain's eyes and ears.

All the while they are meeting this ship, they might see it on the main viewer, or whatever. But THERE MIGHT BE MORE THAN ONE. Thus the science officer is vital. If they get caught up in negotiation, someone else might sneak up. Keep up that tension. While the captain is talknig have the science officer make a roill, difficulty "Really high".

If they fail, "You scan empty space, still finding only the Romulan vessel you are
already aware of."

If they succeed, give them something more..."You detect that this Romulan vessel has a full load of (whatever weapon), with energy capacitors at full power...or the match for the signature detected from before...in fact an exact match.

But, if the federation is to prevent war, they must not fire offensively on this vessel, lest they break the treaty, etc etc. more plot complications. Perhaps with the Science officer actually handed a prop copy of the treaty, and quoting from it to the crew, "From memory."

Lots to do, for everyone.

[LUGTrekGM]

Won't get to play?

What does a Science officer typically do in your games?

[LUGTrekGM]

The ship's doctor can take the role that McCoy did, in Balance of Terror... Advise against war, against casualties, act as the Captain's conscience.

I mean, okay that is what McCoy was written to do... your series doctor might be a hard core hawkish guy who advises, nip this in the bud right here, I'll prepare the crew, set up aid stations, etc.

You are writing the scenario. Give the doc sometihng to do...like:

The romulan ship, lost in some time rift or maybe just out of contact, thinks the war is still on.

The Romulan Ship's executive officer is sick, from some disease caught on the last planet they were on, where they had to go to the surface to forage for fresh food, since they haven't seen a supply ship in months and months....THE Centurian XO of the Rom ship is down with a fever, that the rest of the crew is catching. Either their own doctor is helpless, or has succumbed, or is about to, from treating thier centurian, or THEIR DOC got eaten by some tiger like beast on the last planet they were on.

Running into the Feds, they have to put up a big front... but as they talk the romulan CO coughs, giving a hint to the crew, that there might be illness.

Scans show the romulan CO to have a higher body temperature than the rest of the crew, except for a few lifeforms in what is likely to be thier sickbay...

CAPT: Doctor to the bridge...

There's the Doc's cue.

Now, how to get him involved.. in the midst of "The Talk" the Romulan Commander slumps over in his chair and passes out. They switch off, and move away, trying to figure out what to do...their communications officer, who has listened to the history broadcast, says, "Federation Captain, I believe the words of the Praetor. If we were at war, and you saw my own commander fall, you would have attacked, seeing our weakness. I am now in command, by virtue of Rank. I would ask assistance, from your medical staff, as I do not desire my own Subcommander to perish in this spot, so far from Romii."

You work it out, do they beam to your ship? (possible risk of security and intel loss)or do you beam to thiers (not likely, since they are so hard core, but might be influenced by having better tools to work on romulan physique and medicines, as advised by your own ship's doctor, maybe healing or helping their doc first, or just going in, an case you have it that their doc was smoked, earlier, before meeting the crew.)

yadda yadda improvise from there.

As to having the science officer roll a few dice.. . don't you have them talk? Describe their actions? Make decisions?

Everything I described above for science officer actions would be a good half hour to an hour (or more, if I really wanted to make it detailed) of rolls, describing what they were seeking, my describing outcomes, the captain calling for new scans and course changes, etc.

Plus the deal with the doc, healing the enemy crew, the resultant scene where the Romulan CO wakes up in his own sickbay, thanking his doc, and seeing the Fed doc, standing side to side with the rom doc (or a rom nurse or equivalent), and then realizing, okay the war is over. I owe this Fed my life... And all the rest of it.

I mean that's a whole 4 to 5 hour scenario.

[BraidsMamma]

Thanks for the tips.....
I'll think about how to get them in use

[tonyg]

Some other ways to get the science officer and/or docotor involved is to have something go wrong that ends up requring them to perform taks that are normally outside thier normal range of duties.

For instance, what if the ship takes damage, and some caracters need to figure ut a way to espae from the damaged section before it depressuizes.

Or what if the Captain is one of the ones cut off, and someone needs to resuce him, while someone else must ake command of the ship to fight the Romulans.

Maybe the attackt akes place while certain officers are off duty. Combat damage affcts the brige (disabling the turbolifts). Either the character who are on duty are frced to handle the crisis, or (if the bridge has been disabled) junior offers must handle the fight from auxiliary control.

The best way to figure out what someone can do is to look at the character sheet and see what skills they have. A Science officer with a level or two of Repair or Engineering could be put in charge of a vital damage control party (need to fix the phasers before the Roms ake another pass).

[LUGTrekGM]

Oh yeah, makes for great subplots to do it that way. I like to do that stuff, too, or the players come up with it on thier own.

All good stuff, makes it feel more real.

[tonyg]

Oh yeah, makes for great subplots to do it that way. I like to do that stuff, too, or the players come up with it on thier own.

All good stuff, makes it feel more real.

Subplots really help with a campaign. I've had a few things going where the players were more interested in the subplots than the main story.

[LUGTrekGM]

Same here.

I once had a minor subplot in a Past series I ran about a Vulcan Engineer, that went to Vulcan for the death of his Mother. Contemplating the events, walking around in the desert on a week's leave, he entered an old archaeological dig, and found the shards of an ancient, ancient shield from antiquity.

Trying to restore the shield, and investigate its past led to 4 lengthy scenarios, involving crooked human antiquities buyers, breaking up an art theft ring on Vulcan, a trip to mount Selaya to discover more about the original owner, and a mind-meld with the long-dead katra/spirit of a warrior who once served a Vulcan mindlord. At the completion of the art, the original Vulcan Engineer PC resigned his commission (and left the series) to return to Vulcan to study in the monastery, letting the player generate a new pc to replace that one.

Great stuff, from the basic idea of "you find a part of an ancient, rusted shield."

[tonyg]

Nice. That's quite a lot for a rusted shield. Was that done "on the fly" or did you plan it all out?

"Actually, it isn't native to Vulcan at all. It's a penny from Ferenginar. It dates back to the a time known as the "great fleecing" when the enconomy was in turmoil and inflaation was rampant. Good thing you didn't find one of their gumball machines."